Best Selling Books by Todd Strasser

This novel dramatizes an incident that took place in a California school in 1969. A teacher creates an experimental movement in his class to help students understand how people could have followed Hitler. The results are astounding. The highly disciplined group, modeled on the principles of the Hilter Youth, has its own salute, chants, and special ways of acting as a unit and sweeps beyond the class and throughout the school, evolving into a society willing to give up freedom for regimentation and blind obedience to their leader. All will learn a lesson that will never be forgotten.

"WHEN YOU GREW UP IN THE PROJECTS, THERE WERE NO CHOICES. NO GOOD ONES, AT LEAST." In the Frederick Douglass Project where DeShawn lives, daily life is ruled by drugs and gang violence. Many teenagers drop out of school and join gangs, and every kid knows someone who died. Gunshots ring out on a regular basis. DeShawn is smart enough to know he should stay in school and keep away from the gangs. But while his friends have drug money to buy fancy sneakers and big-screen TVs, DeShawn''s family can barely afford food for the month. How can he stick to his principles when his family is hungry? In this gritty novel about growing up in the inner city, award-winning author Todd Strasser opens a window into the life of a teenager struggling with right and wrong under the ever-present shadow of gangs.

In the middle of the night Garrett is taken from his home to Harmony Lake, a boot camp for troubled teens. Maybe some kids deserve to be sent there, but Garrett knows he doesn''t. Subjected to brutal physical and psychological abuse, he tries to fight back, but the battle is futile. He won''t be allowed to leave until he''s admitted his "mistakes" and conformed to Harmony Lake''s standards of behavior. And there''s no way to fake it. Beaten, humiliated, and stripped of his pride, Garrett''s spirit is slowly ebbing away. Then he hears whispers of an escape plot. It''s incredibly risky -- if he''s caught, the consequences will be unthinkable -- but it may be his only way out. In this tense, riveting novel, award-winning YA author Todd Strasser reveals what really goes on in highly secretive -- and notoriously dangerous -- boot camps, a stealth prison system where any teenager under the age of eighteen can be imprisoned at his parents'' whim.

Overweight high school senior Bo decides to change her image while working on the school play with a former star football player who is also struggling to find a new identity for himself.

Todd Strasser’s acclaimed account of school violence that Kirkus Reviews calls “vivid, distressing, and all too real.” For as long as they can remember, Brendan and Gary have been mercilessly teased and harassed by the jocks who rule Middletown High. But not anymore. Stealing a small arsenal of guns from a neighbor, they take their classmates hostage at a school dance. In the panic of this desperate situation, it soon becomes clear that only one thing matters to Bendan and Gary: revenge.

Her street name is Maybe She lives with a tribe of homeless teens -- runaways and throwaways, kids who have no place to go other than the cold city streets, and no family except for one another. Abused, abandoned, and forgotten, they struggle against the cold, hunger, and constant danger. With the frigid winds of January comes a new girl: Tears, a twelve-year-old whose mother doesn''t believe her stepfather abuses her. As the other kids start to disappear -- victims of violence, addiction, and exposure -- Maybe tries to help Tears get off the streets...if it''s not already too late. Todd Strasser, author of the powerful and disturbing Give a Boy a Gun, again focuses on an important social issue as he tells a thought-provoking, heart-wrenching story of young lives lost to the streets, and of a society that has forgotten how to care.

When Tyler Duvall arrives in Alaska for his dream vacation, He finds that his Uncle Jake is seriously ill and that he has to share Jake''s cabin with two other kids. Jake goes fishing when he disturbs a rogue grizzly bear, who follows him back to his uncle''s cabin.

Drawing from his teenage years, Todd Strasser’s novel revisits a tumultuous era and takes readers on a psychedelically tinged trip of a lifetime. With his girlfriend, Robin, away in Canada, eighteen-year-old Lucas Baker’s only plans for the summer are to mellow out with his friends, smoke weed, drop a tab or two, and head out in his microbus for a three-day happening called the Woodstock Music and Art Fair. But life veers dramatically off track when he suddenly finds himself in danger of being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. If that isn’t heavy enough, there’s also the free-loving (and undeniably alluring) Tinsley, who seems determined to test Lucas’s resolve to stay faithful to Robin; a frighteningly bad trip at a Led Zeppelin concert; a run-in with an angry motorcycle gang; parents who appear headed for a divorce; and a friend on the front lines in ’Nam who’s in mortal danger of not making it back. As the pressures grow, it’s not long before Lucas finds himself knocked so far down, it’s starting to look like up to him. When tuning in, turning on, and dropping out is no longer enough, what else is there?

Rendered homeless by circumstances beyond his family''s control, Dan is forced to move to Tent City, where he begins fighting for better conditions only to be targeted by an adversary who wants to destroy the impoverished region.

IMAPCT ZONE The most dangerous part of the wave You gotta beat it...or you''ll eat it. The summer is hot, and so is action out on the line-up. There''s a big competition coming up, with some serious burrito money attached. All the brahs are in it for something. Lucas has his career and his reputation on the line. If Kai wins, he might be able to stay in Sun Haven and not have to hit the road again with his sketchy dad. For everyone it''s a chance to close out the summer as a champion. Stoked.

A house at the beach. A bunch of hot strangers. A three-month party that''s Off The Hook. Seven randoms cram into a house down the shore, and they''ve all got agendas. Curt wants a gig. Polly wants a life. Owen''s jonesing for someone he can''t have. And everyone''s geared up for one wicked summer. Surfing all day, partying all night. Here''s the real question: If your boyfriend''s cheating but you''re too busy hooking up, does it really count? And if people aren''t who they say they are, does it really matter?

Have you ever seen a shape moving through the night? Do black cats always seem to cross your path? Would your heart race if a ghost sent you a text message? If so, then you might end up Too Afraid to Scream.

Impact Zone: The most dangerous part of the wave You gotta beat it...or you''ll eat it. Ever since he went up against the locals and broke into the lineup, Kai has had his own crew. Spazzy is a summer kid with a lot of fancy gear. He looks like a total shubee. But on the board he''s good, really good -- despite everything going against him. The Spazz wants to be in the local competition, but he can''t do it without Kai. Kai knows there''s no way Spazzy can win against Lucas, the local hero. But Kai would never let a brah down....

At a high school party, a girl finds her best friend murdered, only to be discovered holding the weapon and accused of the crime.

Three teenagers find themselves adrift in the shark-infested waters off the Gulf of Mexico.

"An American teen is led towards committing a terrorist act"--

In the small town of Soundview, someone is blogging about the local high school kids and the comments aren''t kind. But are the posts cruel taunts or vicious threats? Then 17-year-old Lucy Cunningham goes missing after a night out and the hunt is on to catch a killer.

Seven-year-old Kevin McAllister, improbably enough, is left behind when his family goes to France for Christmas vacation, and the precocious boy must defend the homestead from two burglars who have invaded the neighborhood.